Federal School Programs Hearing and Disability Child Find

The Reading Community City Schools invites residents to attend a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on January 24, 2018. The hearing will take place at 1301 Bonnell Road in the Reading Community City School’s Administrative Offices.

Information regarding the following federal programs will be available: Title I-A (Improving Basic Programs), Title II-A (Supporting Effective Instruction), Title III (Language Instruction for English Learners), Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment), IDEA-B (Special Education), and IDEA Early Childhood Special Education.

In addition, The Reading Community City School District seeks to locate, identify, and evaluate all children with disabilities, from infants to age 21, based upon IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) eligibility, regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services. Students are identified, located, and evaluated in accordance with all federal regulations and state guidelines. This includes children attending private or parochial schools whose parents reside within the Reading Community City School District enrollment area.

For children, birth through age two, a disability means that a child has a deficit in one or more of the following areas: behavior, cognition, communication, physical development, sensory development, or social/emotional development. For children ages three through five years of age, a disability means the child has a documented deficit in one or more of the following areas: communication skills, hearing abilities, motor functioning, cognition, social-emotional/behavior functioning, or vision abilities.

For school-age students, a disability means a student having one or more disabilities such as autism, impairments related to hearing (deafness or hearing impaired), vision (blindness or visually impaired), orthopedic impairment, emotional/behavior impairment, specific learning disability, traumatic brain injury, or speech and language impairment.

Additionally, it is the intent of the district to ensure that students who are disabled within the definition of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are evaluated, identified, and served. Section 504 disabilities are mental or physical impairments, or a history of such impairments, that “substantially limit one or more major life activities.”

Please contact Rebecca Johnson, Reading's Director of Student Services, at 513-842-5105 with any questions or if you are aware of a child with a developmental delay or identified disability.